The Illawarra Hotel — Restaurant in Wollongong City Council

We ordered a meal via the electronic QR code on the table which was easy to use (which also prompts patrons to give a tip in advance and I was happy to do this in support of businesses struggling to keep staff at the moment). We didn't mind the wait as we ordered the house pie and were pre warned on the menu it would take extra time to cook. After 20 mins my friend went inside to ask if we could have the entreez only to be told we could not have them as both the entree and main meal would be served at the same time! Nothing we said could change things and we did not want to have an unpleasant evening and accepted the situation. The pie was delicious and beautifully cooked and I would give the main meal 5 stars. The service on the other hand was extremely disappointing and the wait staff had a take it or leave it attitude with regards to both courses being served at the same time. We did not understand the reason for not giving us the entree as we were more than happy to leave our table and pick it up ourselves if they did not want to come to our table twice. The only explanation given was "we can't mange different sections" and we had no idea what that meant. Despite this we enjoyed the meal and we insisted we take the entrees home to prevent the needless waste as we could not eat both at the same time. Horrible service im sorry to say, rigid and inflexible rules which made us feel our custom was...

What a bad experience we had at this pub.

We were on the road from Sydney to Melbourne and we decided to stop there to have diner.

From the start they almost refused us the entry cause my partner was wearing a short… Didn’t know there was a dress code for pubs!

The girl behind the bar, located in the loud area (where people were singing) was so unfriendly. Needs to learn how to smile.

Also, I had ordered a market fish without being advised that they didn’t have any more keiphler potatoes. Instead of that my dish came with cold chips… I went to see a manager to explain my situation, he didn’t bother listening to me entirely and handed me 2 tickets for free drinks even thought we were not drinking alcohol. Well, we had 2 free sparkling waters, amazing !

Apart from that bad experience with the kitchen running out of items which I can understand on a busy day like that. My partner parma’s was the worst I’ve ever tried. Chicken tasted like dirty fried oil or a bit more like cardboard… + market fish itself with green beans tasted even more terrible, swordfish is not liked by everyone and should be cook a different way than they do. Or if they don’t know how to cook swordfish just don’t bother selling it, it is gross.

Just go somewhere else. This...

We go down to the Illawarra every Tuesday for taco Tuesday, having two drinks and three tacos. Today, however, was Melbourne Cup. As a result, when we went to go inside, we were rejected because my partner was wearing thongs, even though we told them we were here for the same dinner we’re here for every week. They then came out and put up signs about a dress code that are not up any other Tuesday night. This is despite many women with thongs on already inside the venue.

However, as we left, the security let in a bunch of people who could barely stand up and had clearly been drinking for many hours, all because they had shoes on.

Who do you think is more likely to kick off? Someone who just got home from work, got changed, chucked on some thongs, and headed down for the dinner he has every week, or someone who has been on the piss all day and is stumbling through the door? Seriously, the venue is in Wollongong- thongs are the permanent footwear of the entire city. They’re not akin to rats tails, bikie colours, and gang apparel, contrary to the dress code signs.

Love the venue, but so disappointed with the stupidity of the decision...